Indian Air Force Not To Allow Female Fighter Pilots At This Stage

[foxhound]

Salaam!

News Update:

Indian Air Force Not To Allow Female Fighter Pilots At This Stage

Dated 26/6/2007
Ref:http://www.india-defence.com/reports-3368

The Indian Air Force is not "yet ready" to induct women pilots to fly fighter jets, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major said today. "In our country and in the IAF we are not yet ready for it (allowing women to fly fighters)," Major said in an interview with NDTV channel.

Conceding that women pilots and women in other branches of the IAF were doing a "tremendous job" and there were no doubts about their capabilities, he said: "As to the induction of women in fighters, let me put it this way that we are not ready for it."

Major's remarks assume significance as they came in the wake of growing demands for allowing women to fly fighters as is being done in the US Air Force. The IAF has over the past few years inducted a number of women to fly transport aircraft and helicopters.

Asked about the acquisition of air strike power by the outlawed LTTE, Major said this was a cause of concern but it was not "alarming".

On the delay in floating international tenders for purchasing 126 multi-role combat aircraft for his force, Major said final touches had been given to the request for proposals (RFP) and he expected this to be issued shortly



Are the Women Pilots in the PAF trained for combat.....or will they be assigned to Transport (hercules) or helicopter (vip/transport) duties?.........

 

[Adux]

In PAF women are fighter pilots

check out the video of IAF chief, You can hear him say this

 

[Ahassan]

YES!!!!!!!! PAF women are fighter pilots...........
but some one told me that they fly only fighter trainers.....

 

[Adux]

they fly f-7's

 

[Ahassan]

i think its ft-7's

 

[niaz]

I would say that IAF guys are male chauvinist pigs. But I am with them.

Accepting the risk of being called a sexist, I believe that as long as men are available to do the fighting, no reason to ask the fairer sex to put their life on the line.

 

[Bull]

I would say that IAF guys are male chauvinist pigs. But I am with them.

Accepting the risk of being called a sexist, I believe that as long as men are available to do the fighting, no reason to ask the fairer sex to put their life on the line.

Let them ride the ramp.

 

[Adux]

I do believe took the wrong decision here...
Actually women are better fighter pilots, along with the number of G they can take, and their extremely nice hand eye co-ordination

 

[shimud]

the four female commissioned pilots of PAF are in light communications flight. while on FT-5 at Mianwali, nobody was reported to be able to make it to OCUs. although its good to practice equality in all jobs, but in my view it was an experiment which proved that even PAF is not prepared to induct women as fighter pilots. the requirements, threats, stakes, assets, everything demands a certain quality and PAF is not in a position to put anything in danger. that's my opinion. others might differ from it.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

I believe that as long as men are available to do the fighting, no reason to ask the fairer sex to put their life on the line.

No one is "asking" them to, my understanding is that they enthusiastically volunteered for the job. If women can meet the required standards and qualifications, all power to them.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

the four female commissioned pilots of PAF are in light communications flight. while on FT-5 at Mianwali, nobody was reported to be able to make it to OCUs. although its good to practice equality in all jobs, but in my view it was an experiment which proved that even PAF is not prepared to induct women as fighter pilots. the requirements, threats, stakes, assets, everything demands a certain quality and PAF is not in a position to put anything in danger. that's my opinion. others might differ from it.

There should be no compromise on the standards required. the whole point about equality is not just being allowed to do a particular job, but being able to demonstrate that you can do it just as well as the men in line with you. Too many times, the media trumpets the former without analyzing the latter.

As far as putting assets in danger, you would have the same issue with sub standard male pilots, so to suggest that putting women in combat fighters is a "failed experiment", just because the first batch was not able to live up to the requirements and expectations, that a only a small percentage of even the male population can meet, is premature.

 

[su-47]

There should be no compromise on the standards required. the whole point about equality is not just being allowed to do a particular job, but being able to demonstrate that you can do it just as well as the men in line with you. Too many times, the media trumpets the former without analyzing the latter.

As far as putting assets in danger, you would have the same issue with sub standard male pilots, so to suggest that putting women in combat fighters is a "failed experiment", just because the first batch was not able to live up to the requirements and expectations, that a only a small percentage of even the male population can meet, is premature.

I completely agree with you. If a woman can prove that she is up to the job, then by all means she should get it.

Its a pity that IAF decided against taking women pilots. If the army can take women, why not the air force.

the only aree where i think women shouldnt be taken is in the navy. This is because navy personnel have to go onboard vessels for months at a time, and i dont think its a good idea for a woman to be cooped up with hundreds of men.

 

[shimud]

There should be no compromise on the standards required. the whole point about equality is not just being allowed to do a particular job, but being able to demonstrate that you can do it just as well as the men in line with you. Too many times, the media trumpets the former without analyzing the latter.

As far as putting assets in danger, you would have the same issue with sub standard male pilots, so to suggest that putting women in combat fighters is a "failed experiment", just because the first batch was not able to live up to the requirements and expectations, that a only a small percentage of even the male population can meet, is premature.

that's not the case. two of my friends are serving flight lieutenants flying f-7 and mirage, i won't name them, they are from different batches, they told me of the number of cadets unable to make it to frontline fighter squadrons. would you believe that out of a batch of 72-75 cadets its just 20 or 25 percent who made it to the fighter squadrons.

i am not saying that every man a tiger but with this much filtering you can expect some quality. it's usually said that instructors at mianwali are not happy with the attrition rate at FCUs but then they are not able to compromise on anything. its equal for men and women.

 

[Marathaman]

I completely agree with you. If a woman can prove that she is up to the job, then by all means she should get it.

Its a pity that IAF decided against taking women pilots. If the army can take women, why not the air force.

the only aree where i think women shouldnt be taken is in the navy. This is because navy personnel have to go onboard vessels for months at a time, and i dont think its a good idea for a woman to be cooped up with hundreds of men.

There is nothing inherently wrong with having women in the armed forces. Neither does the IAF belive so.
However, it would require a lot of effort to create the infrastructure and would need considerable planning and overhauling of the system. I think the priorities of the IAF are quite different at the moment.

As far as the army is concerned, I don't support women in combat roles at the moment. Jawans, who come from rural backgrounds, aren't ready to accept military orders from women.
Also, the amount of effort needed to make women soldiers effective isn't worth it right now.

I don't support the idea of army as an instrument of social change. Let society learn to respect women equally, then the army shall induct them.
Until then, I don't see the point of compromising our combat effectiveness to appease a few womens groups.

 

[haziz2007]

AOA. I'm new to this forum and it's my first reply to this forum.

Regarding recruiting females in Pakistan air force is not a big issue. Women has been occupying male-oriented jobs for many years. Issue is that, what will be the future of these female fighter? Whom and when they will marry? Will they be able to manage their husband and children with PAF's requirements?